Tag Archive for: digestion

How the Quality of Your Diet Changes Your Mycobiome

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In the experiment I told you about on Tuesday, the researchers established that environment—exposure to light, temperature, and other environmental factors—affects the microbiome, including the fungi or mycobiome. The researchers then tested the changes in the mycobiome (the fungus part of the microbiome) after feeding the mice a highly processed diet compared with mice eating conventional mice chow. They also monitored changes in body composition, triglycerides, and other hormones related to obesity.

After eight weeks on the highly processed diet, there were differences in the quantity of fungi. Some groups of related organisms increased while others decreased. Because not every group has known roles in digestion and metabolism, the researchers examined metabolic changes in response to the dietary change; they found an increase in body fat and triglycerides in the male mice along with concurrent changes in hormones that signified a move toward prediabetes. (For some reason, the female mice in this species are protected from those effects.)

After examining the composition of the highly processed chow, I’d like to have seen one more group of mice in the experimental group. Because the highly processed chow had no fiber, it would have been helpful to see what would happen to the entire microbiome if the amount of fiber was the same in the processed chow as the conventional chow. Maybe it wouldn’t have impacted the fungi at all, or the change could have been significant.

The Bottom Line

What lessons can we learn from this study? We’re not mice after all. I think it means that a highly processed, highly-refined carbohydrate diet may cause undesirable changes in our microbiome, including the fungal levels as well. For example, Candida albicans is a primary fungus in our digestive system, but it can cause all kinds of problems if it gets out of control. Reducing refined carbohydrates has a beneficial impact on keeping that fungus at beneficial levels.

Regardless of your current age, a better diet is part of Aging with a Vengeance. Reducing processed food, especially carbohydrates, can benefit your microbiome and all that it impacts. Time to start now.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Comm Bio (2021).4:281 https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-01820-z

Unusual Questions: Resistant Starch

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Recently an Insider asked what I knew about resistant starch and whether it can help control blood sugar in someone whose blood sugar was higher than normal. Here’s what I found.

Resistant starch (RS) is found in many vegetables and some fruits. It resists digestion and absorption, especially in the small intestine. One of the problems: RS is described on the Internet as not digested and absorbed, but that’s not accurate. It resists digestion and absorption in the small intestine but doesn’t block it completely. Because it doesn’t break down to sugar molecules, RS will not spike blood sugar the way non-resistant starch might.

RS is digested by gut bacteria in a fermentation process. Because the RS feeds healthy bacteria, it produces, among other substances, short-chained fatty acids—fats that can be used for energy without being processed by the liver. The highest amount of RS can be found in beans, grains, potatoes, bananas, and plantains.

However, it’s not quite as simple as that because food preparation happens to be important in this process. I’ll cover that as well as some other research on RS in Saturday’s Memo.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet